TURTLES TO THE RESCUE!!!

     Since the day we were born, we were taken care of Mother Earth. All the materials and basic needs we need were from Earth. However, as time passes, many people are taking our Earth for granted. Everything from the land, to the waters and up to the skies is now getting affected. How are we going to help them?

     Hello once again, READERS! Today, we will talk to you about the information we gathered regarding the marine turtles and how we can help, but before that, let us start off with something we always do, yeah; you’re RIGHT, with a QUOTE!

 

“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble... (BlaisePascal).”

 

     Every little thing we do can cause MAJOR problems, without us knowing it. And remember the thing about plastic bags? It causes death to turtles (How MAJOR is that?). SO, next time, think before you act. Be open-minded and think of as many EFFECTS as possible, then after that, weigh it, which has more advantages? NOBODY can tell, except for YOU. TO wrap it all up, It’s somehow ALL up to YOU.       

WEIGH IT. BE A WAGER.

 

     And now, let us continue with the importance of the marine turtles. If the marine turtles were to be extinct, some of the marine animals, like the plankton, will be overpopulated because they will have fewer predators. Also, the animals that eat marine turtles would have less food which may cause imbalance in the ecological system of marine life.

     One of the top enemies of marine turtles is global warming. As you well know, global warming is when the water rises and covers a big track of land because of the temperature of the Earth rising. If this were to happen, the turtles won’t have any place to lay their eggs because the beaches would likely be covered by water. Global warming is also the process when the earth heats up (the temperature rises).  It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature.  This hurts many people, animals (Like the MARINE turtles), and plants.  Many of them cannot take the change, so they die (HOW SAD :(). Rising of the temperature is also the cause of sea level rise from the melting of polar ice and that is already contributing to the loss of beach and sea turtle nesting habitat.  Weather extremes, also linked to climate change, mean more frequent and severe storms which alter nesting beaches, causing beach erosion or flooding to the sea turtle nests (WOW, THAT’S A LOT).  

     

     Increasing temperatures also cause hotter sands which results in decreased hatching rates or complete nest failure. And there’s more (WHAT!!!), it also affects hatchlings by altering natural sex ratios, with hotter temperature producing more female hatchlings.

    

     Actually, there are lots more BAD effects of global warming to the marine turtles (SAD FACT). However, let’s just stick to this because some of you might faint (Just joking… but seriously). And do you want to know what the major contributors of GLOBAL WARMING are? ANSWER: WELL, DUH… OK, we’ll show you… Why don’t you STOP for a while and GRAB any MIRROR then LOOK… Is IT obvious now? Well, for the sake of some people who don’t get it… HERE”S THE ANSWER…

YOU!!!

 

     ANOTHER SAD FACT UP THERE… but, do you want to change from the KILLER to the SAVER? Well here are some things that we, students, can do to help…    

      

     As students, we can conserve marine turtles by causing less pollution, reporting people who kill marine turtles for money, and to inform people to try and not cause global warming or we can be GOOD examples because you have to start off with changing yourself before changing the world, with leads us to another QUOTE (YEHEY, 2 Quotes in a ROW!!!):

 

     I don’t think that needs more explaining to do. The quote speaks for itself.

      

     Besides those mentioned above, we can also join organizations that help in conserving marine turtles, like the Pawikan Conservation Center! We should also start practicing the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to help lessen the cause of global warming EVERYDAY! 

REDUCE the use of electricity!

REUSE old SHOES!!!

RECYCLE OLD NEWSPAPERS!

GO TO the Pawikan Conservation Center.

      

     TO end this post, we must end it with a BANG (You know what we mean)! But, we think we don’t need the summarizing because the first QUOTE says it all! Once again, thank you for tuning in and we hope that what you learned from us will stick in your minds and hearts! BYE!

First STOP: BATAAN!!!

The beautiful mountain of Bataan...

     Hello readers! WE are here once again to tell you all sorts of amazing things we found out about nature and about our resources! Our first stop in our trip to nature is Bataan, the beautiful and unique Bataan! And we went there to visit two of the amazing sites in Bataan: The Pawikan Conservation Center (PCC) and the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant! However, we’re just going to post, for now, the awesome things we learned in our first venue, the PCC! And we will start off this post with a quote:

      That quote means that you can see the real moral progress of a nation by simply looking at how the nation treats its animals. Does the nation make programs concerning the wildlife? OR does the nation leave that issue behind? How about you? What do you think of our government? Does the government make efforts on protecting wildlife or what?

     Now, let’s move on to our field trip…    

     We had a field trip in Bataan because our teacher wanted us to know the real status of the Earth’s resources like the sea turtles for example. And also to widen and open our minds on the effects on the little things we do. Did you know that when you throw a plastic bag on the ground and not on the proper place, there will be a chance that you can kill a marine turtle? We didn’t, but because of the lecture in PCC, we knew what we had to do. Do you want to know why it can kill them? ANSWER: OF COURSE. Simple, when plastic bags are thrown in the ground, there can be some circumstances that it will end up in the sea. Then, the little turtles will see the plastic as a jellyfish (They eat jellyfishes.), and after they eat and swallow it, something bad will happen and the turtles will eventually suffocate (Maybe, it wasn’t that simple).

     We joined this field trip because we wanted to, of course, go to Bataan and see the little pawikan hatchlings. We also wanted to clean-up the coastal area where the turtles hatch their eggs. And we wanted to see how the BNPP works. We also expected that there will be hatchlings available on the time we go to the PCC (That was about last February 3, 2012.) and we also expected that we can, of course, learn more about the turtles and the “White Elephant” (BNPP).

And what did we feel before the trip? Here:

Kai Lin feels… “that we will have a good field trip!!!”

Snowdrop is… “excited and nervous because I’m afraid that the bus will leave me!!!”

Josh Bayns (Josiah’s new nickname) is…”excited.”

Nathan is…”very excited!”

Aluxre is…”a little nervous because I haven’t released a hatchling before!”

    

     The five of us expected to see turtle hatchlings in the PCC and we also expected to have a great day and see the different kinds of species there and how they conserve it. And you might probably have on question in your mind, “What is the PCC?” Answer: The PCC is one of the conservation centers in the Philippines. It’s a center that helps in the preserving and the conserving of the turtles or the “pawikans” in the Philippines. We learned a lot from the PCC like ways on how they hatch, the imprinting process and the kinds of species there. There are five species seen on the Philippines: the Olive Ridley (Which was the only species we saw in the PCC.), the Green, the Leatherback, the Hawksbill, and the Loggerhead Turtle, but we were only able to adopt an  Olive Ridley or the Lepidochelys olivacea.

Pictures of the Olive Ridley turtles heading to the shore. :D

    

          

     Now let us give some facts about the one and only live turtle we saw in the PCC, the Olive Ridley!!!

     The Olive Ridley Turtle or the Lepidochelys olivacea is also known as “mukay” in Bicol and “latun” in Palawan. And this is the taxonomic classification:

  

    Taxonomic classification...

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Cheloniidae
Genus:	Lepidochelys
Species:	L. olivacea

     The Olive Ridley is also the smallest marine turtle in the whole world and it is named after it's shell which is colored olive green. It also feeds on all food types like crabs, shrimps and snails. The Olive Ridley is distributed in Bataan and Zambales here in the Philippines. We also chose the Olive Ridley Turtle because it was the only sea turtle we saw in the PCC. And based on what Kai Lin said “It was so cute!”, it was really cute. 

OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES!!!!

     Lastly, what’s the ecological importance of that turtle? Well, the Olive Ridley Turtle serves as the carnivores  in the food web. They also help balance the food chain of the marine life, without them, there won’t be, of course, balance in the ecosystem which results in some disruptions of the other marine creatures. And they are also creatures made by God so we should preserve and conserve them (You see how awesome they are?).

    That’s about it for now, SO LONG READERS! Thank you for reading our long post and we hope that you’ll stick to our blog (We don’t mean it literally.)until the end and until our NEXT trip to nature!!! Oh, and we hope you learned a lot from our trip!!!

Everything must start with an introduction...

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

     That quote just simply means that everything must start with a simple but meaningful start. Everything should start with something, right? Right. In our case, before we get all excited and stuff we should first introduce the team that are part of this blog and this journey. And by the way, we hope that you, readers, will be with us until the end of our journey.

     Vibeen a.k.a. the most recent “Kai Lin” nickname is known as being the artistic and friendly girl in our class. Being artistic and creative, Kai Lin is always asked to draw or decorate something from the simple bond paper up to the most random things. She is also known as the “one-who-has-a-good-singing-voice-and-recently-knows-how-to-play-the-guitar” kind of person. She is also, by the way, adventurous and is game for anything. She’s the type of person you’ll see inside the four corners of a room, with a few but close friends. All in all, despite her dynamic character, one can describe her in just these few words, talented and kind.

     Chyna/Chi Chi or “Snow Drop” is one that you can see occasionally bumping, spilling, dropping and hitting things accidentally (yeah, we know, she’s really clumsy). Once you hear the sound of an object that dropped in the 2^nd Floor of our school, most likely than not, it will be her. Also known as the intellectual person/alien, she is mostly seen in competitions held in her school. However, she’s more than that; she’s a true friend which many people, including boys, trust. And she can be hiding many things and talents that you didn’t expect from her, but watch out, before you even say “Hi” to her; she might bump you or accidentally hit you first.

    

     Josiah is the athletic and TALL guy that you can here making jokes and laughing really LOUD. He would be the one who would always express his opinions to the teacher and to his classmates. He has a circle of friends, but only has a few CLOSE friends. One would always see him shooting hoops in the basketball area and if not, playing any other sport. He’s also very musical and knows how to play the piano and guitar very well, many people think that he is talented and yeah, he really is. You might think that he’s mean and annoying sometimes, but once you get to know him, he would be a great, sincere and caring friend to be with.

     When you here the sound of the recorder playing random songs, it will almost always be Nathan. You would always here him say random facts and riddles about everything. He’s the one you’d see in the corner writing in his journal or drawing characters when we have free time, but when classes start, he’d be the person who can express his opinions without hesitation. He might be somehow a “loner”, but when you fully understand his TRUE self, he’s not just any friend, but he’s this FRIEND that you can count on and can understand you because he might be having the same problems that you have.

     Aluxre (Raj) is the guy you’d see with friends who laugh at him and you’d see him laughing back too, but inside he’s thinking differently. He’s the kind of person who’s different from what people think about him. When people think he’s not nice, they’re WRONG. When people think he’s so sensitive, they’re also WRONG. He’s more than just that, they just need to think more deeply and think of the other possible things that he can be. Also known as one of the smartest boys, Aluxre’s known to work hard and when he says something, sometimes he means the other. So you see, he’s very unpredictable, but he’s the one to watch.

     SO here it is, the 5 members namely Kai Lin, Snow Drop, Josiah, Nathan and Aluxre. The 5 of us will be part of this journey that will uncover the truth about EARTH and other less-known facts.

     We made this blog to make the readers (Yeah, YOU) think outside of the box and to know the “major, major” issues that’s happening in the WORLD we live in. We also want to tell everyone what we think, not just to the 4 corners of the classroom, and we are very thankful that T. Rye gave us the opportunity to express our opinions and to make this blog our project.

MAY GOD BLESS ALL OF US AND MAY THE JOURNEY START!